We Give Thee But Thine Own

At Church of Our Saviour we are spending 6 weeks discussing money....the good and bad sides as well as giving, spending, and earning it.  The choir has been singing this hymn every week in preparation for the congregation to sing it on February 23 and March 2. 

The text for this hymn was written by William Walsham How in the mid-19th century.  It is a wonderful treatise about stewardship.  The basic premise is that all of our money, our resources, our time, and our talents all belong to God.  He has given them to us with the understanding that we are to praise him and to give back to him.

How was a great believer in this as evidenced by his life. He had worked faithfully as a pastor at an Anglican Church for 25 years in the farming village of Whittington . During his tenure there, he was offered on more than one occasion advancements and opportunities to serve as a bishop in South Africa, New Zealand, and Jamaica.  He was also not a scholar so many assumed he just lacked ambition.  This belief could not be further from the truth and when the chance came to serve in London's impoverished East End, he took it immediately.

He then became known as the poor man's bishop. He rode public buses rather than private coches as one would guess would accompany his position. He spent much of his time raising funds to alleviate the poverty around him. His ambition was "not to be remembered but to be helpful." He was eventually called "a most unselfish man, with a tender fondness for children." Not a bad way to be remembered.   The last verse sums up his beliefs as he wrote "Whate'er for Thine we do, O Lord/ We do it untoThee."